Reconciliation is complex. It requires justice, truth, and forgiveness. It involves a wide range of activities, from judicial trials and memorials to government apologies and educational initiatives.
The work of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and Rwanda’s Gacaca Community Courts, has inspired countries around the world to confront their bloody histories. But can reconciliation alone make a difference?
1. Identifying and Recognising the Needs of the Community
In order for reconciliation to occur, a community must first identify its needs. Those needs may be as obvious as providing access to basic services, or as intangible as improving the quality of community life. Whatever the need, it is important to examine it closely and understand it fully. In the past, reconciliation processes such as South Africa’s TRC and Rwanda’s Gacaca Community Courts were created in an attempt to heal the wounds of a country’s history of violence. These efforts were successful, but their impact was limited by the lack of resources and support.
Many speakers emphasized the importance of providing communities with the necessary tools and support to initiate and sustain dialogue and reconciliation. They also called for the international community to provide these resources, recognizing that reconciliation is an ongoing process that requires a long-term commitment.
Another crucial step in reconciliation is identifying the root causes of conflict. Whether it be addressing the grievances of victims, redressing economic injustice or preventing future atrocities, these processes must include all people. This means including religious leaders, women and youth in the conversation, and respecting freedom of speech and peaceful assembly. In addition, these processes must be rooted in the communities and societies affected by conflict, and must involve local leadership.
These initiatives fall under the umbrella of “transitional justice.” This term describes a range of approaches that seek to establish accountability, truth and reconciliation following wars or mass atrocities. Judicial actions, such as trials for crimes against humanity and genocide, are key components of transitional justice. Other elements include truth commissions, reparations programmes, memorials and education. Moreover, apologies, government reforms and peace journalism projects are also often part of these processes.
2. Establishing a Trusting Relationship
Developing trusting relationships is essential for effective cross-cultural communication, collaboration, and reconciliation. One way to establish trust is to share a common vision of the goal of reconciliation, which is based on mutual respect and understanding. It also requires building shared understanding of the past events that led to the current disparities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.
The goal of reconciliation is to rebuild trust and promote healing between communities that have been divided by conflict. This is achieved through addressing the past, while moving forward with a commitment to the future.
Reconciliation is not just about repairing damaged relationships; it is about transforming the way we look at the world and the people in it. It focuses on restoring trust between wounded individuals, families and entire nations. It is about healing the wounds of our past that have caused us to distrust each other and to view each other with suspicion and resentment. It is about forgiving those who have wronged us and embracing the power of forgiveness to transform the relationship between nations.
There are many different forms of reconciliation, and each approach has its own set of strengths and weaknesses. However, the most successful reconciliation initiatives typically involve three key components: ensuring accountability for human rights violations, establishing truth, and fostering reconciliation. Prosecutions and trials can play a part in this process, but so can reparations, official apologies, government reforms, memorials, and education. Truth commissions, such as South Africa’s TRC, are perhaps the best-known example of this type of transitional justice.
A guiding principle for reconciliation is that “all people are equal in the eyes of God.” As such, it is important to take steps to ensure that all individuals receive the same level of care and service in their communities and in government agencies. This can be done by identifying and tracking indicators that demonstrate the disparities between government funding for Indigenous programs and services and non-Indigenous programs and services.
3. Developing a Common Vision
When a group of people is trying to reconcile differences, it is important that they have the same vision for what reconciliation looks like. A common vision will guide the group as they move toward reconciliation, and it will help them identify any barriers that may prevent reconciliation from occurring.
This vision should include an understanding of the past and what needs to be done in order to create a more equitable future. It should also include an understanding of the importance of building trust and fostering a positive culture. It is also important to understand that reconciliation cannot happen without forgiveness. Therefore, it is essential that the group works towards finding ways to forgive those who have harmed them in the past.
Reconciliation is a complex process that requires a lot of work, but it is also an exciting one. In the end, it is about healing relationships both between individuals and within communities, and between nations. This can be seen in the reconciliation efforts that occurred after apartheid ended in South Africa and in Rwanda after genocide was committed there.
For example, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in South Africa was a major milestone, but it came with some controversy. Some victims, such as the family of the late activist Steve Biko, objected to the TRC because it offered perpetrators amnesty instead of holding them accountable for their crimes.
Nevertheless, the TRC was able to overcome these objections because it worked toward a common vision of reconciliation that included ensuring accountability for crimes and atrocities, establishing truth, and fostering a spirit of forgiveness. It was this spirit that allowed the TRC to succeed despite its limitations, and it is this vision that must be pursued by all those who want to reconcile their differences.
4. Developing a Joint Action Plan
Developing a joint action plan can be a great way to get started on the journey towards reconciliation. Create a list of goals or objectives that you would like to accomplish, and then divide these into smaller sub-tasks so that everyone has something to work on. You can then assign each task to a person or group, making it easy for everyone to stay on track and see the progress that is being made.
The 2021 National Action Plan for Reconciliation is a step in this direction, but it will be important to continue building strong relationships with Indigenous communities across the country, and to ensure that our services are delivered with respect to culture and identity. It is also critical to ensure that our research and teaching are informed by the lived experiences of our students, colleagues and community members.
As the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) began its hearings in 1995, people wondered if the process was truly about reconciliation or simply about bringing truth to light and providing justice for the victims of apartheid. The TRC was often compared to the Nuremburg Trials after World War II, where those who committed mass atrocities were brought to justice and held accountable for their actions.
However, as the TRC and Gacaca Community Courts in Rwanda demonstrated, the road to reconciliation is not paved by retributive justice alone. Even with the best of intentions, retributive justice can be harmful to the goal of reconciliation, which focuses on moving beyond a history of retaliation towards a future of inclusion and understanding. In fact, many of the same principles are applied when it comes to interpersonal reconciliation.
5. Developing a Monitoring Plan
Reconciliation involves healing both individual and community relationships, and addressing the legacy of harm left behind by colonisation. It also involves changing attitudes, and achieving change at the national level often requires political commitment and leadership. This is an essential part of the reconciliation process, as a nation that fails to fulfil its obligations with respect to Indigenous people does so at the peril of its international reputation and standing.
While a variety of approaches can be used to achieve reconciliation, there is some broad agreement on what elements are necessary. One of the key approaches is to use transitional justice, a set of measures that aims to ensure accountability, establish truth, and foster reconciliation. These may include judicial actions such as trials for war crimes and atrocities, reparations, official apologies, government reforms, memorials, and education. However, the most commonly recognised component of transitional justice is the truth commission. The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) is the best-known example, but there are many other examples of truth commissions across the world.
While the TRC was not a successful solution on its own, it helped popularise and legitimise this type of body, and since then countries as diverse as Nepal and Canada have adopted elements of the model in their efforts at reconciliation. There is no single model that can reconcile a society, but the TRC provides an important lesson about how to set measurable goals, develop timelines, and report on progress. In this way, the TRC is a powerful example of how to incorporate Indigenous perspectives into a monitoring system. This approach is important because it allows the community to hold leaders accountable for the work they have agreed to do.